The Book Themed Baby Shower

Library Book Inserts as Invitations

I had a big hand in my baby shower planning. My mom and aunt who were the actual planners would tell you that it’s because I’m a control freak. True that may be however mainly it’s because I love party planning. I haven’t done it professionally, and I’ve never done it with a huge budget or with my hours being paid for. The events are always bigger and better in my brain than when they are executed. My baby shower was an exception however.

 

I’ll start with the theme. Before I knew he was a boy, and therefore would be named Grayson, I knew I wanted to have a gray baby shower. The name Grayson is coincidence I swear. I had googled party images and the grays were always my favorite. So now I needed an accent color and I just loved the idea of orange. Many months ago I saw some pictures of a Harry Potter party and absolutely loved that idea. However it was revised because one, that’s not a baby book, and two because not everyone attending would understand.

So we decided on a book theme shower. There were hardly any touches of “baby” to be seen. I wanted to skip the typical baby bottles and carriages used for décor. I’m just not into typical anything ever. The touches of “baby” were tiny gray baby blocks stuffed into the napkins at each setting, as well as baby photos of me, dad, and our own kids. Everything else was made from books: heart confetti from pages, stacked books as a vase for flowers, book “fans”, book page placemats, book page name banner, book page vases, and other tiny touches. A lot of the ideas came from pinterest and can be found on my board here Shower Inspiration Board.

Like I said, it turned out better than I had thought. I put off doing anything baby shower until after my friend’s wedding. I didn’t want to switch gears in my brain until it was over. So that left us with one month to DIY everything. In that month I was pregnant and going to school on top of caring for two kids. Little time was left for me as well as my mom and aunt to meet together and craft up the décor. While facing those challenges, the fact that it still came out so beautifully leaves me so pleased.

I painted Harry Potter on the Cake.

My friend Brittany baked a two layer stack of books cake. I painted a Harry Potter for the cover. It was the pose from Order of the Phoenix if you’re curious, one of my favorite books. I am lucky to have a friend who likes to bake.

The games were a hit! We only played two because I’m not big on the games, but they were great. One was alternate book titles. I made them up to look like books for each guest however there is a free printable of it online Alternate Titles Game. We also played a game of “Mom or Dad”. I had my mom and mother-in-law tell me stories about me and dad. The cards were made to look like bookmarks and  guests had to guess he or she for each story. Some of the stories were hilarious and some were embarrassing. It was funny to see their faces when they learned that I was the one who used to trade toys everyday on the playground in second grade.

Can I say again I’m happy with how it turned out? I am so happy with how it turned out. I had a great turn out of family and friends in attendance. Appearance wise it was awesome. The games were fun. We received plenty of needed items for Grayson, and I was able to destroy and then re-use books that were wasting space in my closet in a box. I’m a proud kindle owner and therefore was happy to use my books for something more useful than sitting. (Of course I have kept my HP books. Those are special.)

The book vases were so pretty that I kept one as décor for fall in my home.